Segregated Gossip (Or Why Only Black People Will Ask About Mashonda)
Monday, August 2, 2010 at 11:30AM
Image from Page Six via GawkerR&B singer Alicia Keys married producer Swizz Beatz this weekend and gossip column Page Six covered it with blissful excitement. In an article titled "Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz make beautiful music," The New York Post article describes the dress (Vera Wang) and how spiritualist Deepak Chopra officiated. But as anyone who follows black gossip sites and blogs there is a giant, grumpy 800 lbs gorilla in the room named "infidelity" and "controversy" and "scandal" and "divorce" and "outside chidlren." But you won't see any of that in Page Six, or any major media outlet because in the world of gossip, not all black gossip is equal.
I thought about this after reading this comment regarding Swizz and Alicia's marriage on Gawker this morning:
So Alicia Keyes starts an affair with this guy while he's married and is about to become his fourth baby mama (ok, "love," but, yeah, it's kinda trashy). He apparently doesn't acknowledge the 3rd baby.
Now, I know that gossip blogs primarily catering to African-American readers have blown up about this, but her reputation in the mainstream press stills seems sparkly.
I feel like with a number of other pop stars Us and Star and Page Six would be all over that, and yet this Page Six (PAGE SIX!) announcement is absolutely glowing and respectful.
Is it just because her music and image otherwise is considered more "respectable" or are there other aspects at play?
There's a reason why you will find black people impassioned about Alicia Keys' relationship with Swizz Beats and heated debates about whether or not she's a homewrecker or whether or not he's a poor excuse for a human being or whether or not Mashonda is a crazy person. (Or even opine on whether or not Alicia should name her child "A'Dulteree.") And there's a reason why outlets like Page 6 and others don't seem to know or care about the controversy. It's the same reason why the affairs of Tiger Woods were reported intensely, yet the ups and downs of Shaq and Shaunie or Dwayne Wade and his wife are lucky if they even end up on TMZ on a slow day.
Gossip, like everything else in the media, is a business. This is why Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston are still "allegedly" getting revenge against each other in the tabloids more than five years after Aniston's divorce from Brad Pitt and about a billion adopted and biological kids later. The gossip press is still humping this dead horse because it was the most profitable gossip horse ever ridden into the ground. It doesn't matter that no one has seen Brad Pitt and his ex-Aniston photographed together in five years. Surely they're still sending texts to each other and calling each other in the fevered imaginations of magazine reporters. The press hypes this story because it involves a former TV sweetheart, a leading male movie heart-throb and one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood. They're also all white people.
That doesn't hurt at all.
For gossip about black celebrities to "cross over" there has to be some hook. Either the person they get into it with has to be A) as big of a star as they are or bigger (Chris Brown and Rihanna) or B) have an Oprah/Michael Jackson level of fame all on their own. The reason why Page 6 doesn't care about Mashonda or Swizz Beatz's past is because Page 6 has no real clue who the hell those people are. Or if they do know who they are, they do not care because they know that Swizz Beatz and Mashonda don't sell ads. If Alicia Keys had broken up, say, Kanye and Amber Rose (that's some fan-fiction there), they might have cared. If Alicia Keys had broken up Will and Jada they would have definitely cared. The problem with Alicia Keys' relationship drama is the same problem with Wade's and Shaq's. Because the other people in their love triangle (or octogon in Shaq's case) are relatively unknown to the white mainstream, they aren't interesting to advertisers and consumers. Now maybe if they turned up dead they'd get interesting, but short of the drama of a murder investigation, no one cares.
Until the age of the black blogosphere, most black celebrities didn't even have to worry about negative press in the black media. Ebony, the black race's PR magazine, would never put out anything truly critical of Whitney and Bobby. All flaws, inconveniences and rumors were painted and glossed over. Everyone, even the most messed up, were given a healthy, bright sheen. Illicit affairs were inescapable whirlwind romances or were never examined at all. Abuse, both of the spousal and drug kind, were neglected (unless it benefited the main star's comeback story). And the paparazzi were only interested in photos that would bring the highest bids. Even situations that seemed inescapable for bad or embarrassing press, like the break up of Lionel Richie's marriage in the 80s, the black press was a refuge, where someone like Lionel could get out "his" version of the story without the ugly stain of ego and infidelity.
Or just ignore the whole sordid mess altogether.
Sites like Bossip, Young Black and Fabulous, MediaTakeOut and Nicole Bitchie killed the black celebrity gossip gatekeeper. It was hilarious to watch an outlet like Huffington Post grapple with the break up of Shaq's marriage and rumors about him and Gilbert Arenas' finacee in comparison to their wall-to-wall Tiger Woods coverage. The fact that they had to defer to Young Black And Fabulous, the site that originally broke the story by reproducing texts and emails between Shaq and Laura Govan. The fact that they were completely clueless about the players and the history. Late to the game, they played catch up as best as they could with something that was decidedly old news in the black blogosphere.
But because gossip is still largely segregated, here are some tips for black celebrities if they never want to see their stories make it to the mainstream:
1) Make sure at least one person in your love triangle is a black woman no one outside of Jet Magazine has heard of. (See: Jackson, Shar)
2) Avoid entanglements with people who have already "crossed over" who are much, much more important and celebrated than you. Don't have an affair with Denzel Washington and get both of you caught. You will pay the price. Not Denzel. Never Denzel.
3) Make sure whatever crime you commit is against another black person who is not as famous as you. Any story involving nothing but black people will get ignored.
4) If you are a black man who's famous, be nice to whatever white woman you're schtupping. Even if no one has ever heard of her, the minute you cheat on her or she comes up missing or she files a rape charge against you, you're going down in the ugliest way possible.
5) Don't cross over. Ever. If Tyler Perry were white and that rich and famous everyone would be all in his business all the time. So far the only person who's called him out is another black guy, Aaron McGruder. Embarrassing? Sure. A gossipy death-blow? Hardly. Your grandma doesn't watch Boondocks.
If their goal is to stay off CNN, I would advice Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz to not sleep around with any white people, for Mashonda not to come up dead, for Swizz Beatz to never become any more famous than "Mr. Alicia Keys," that Swizz not abuse Alicia or cheat on her with someone as famous or more famous than she is and for Swizz to never, ever produce anything that would give white people a reason to remember his name.
The segregation of celebrity gossip is the only glass ceiling that has an upside.
Reader Comments (65)
So right you are Snob!
What is scandalous to us is a non-event to everybody else.
The fact that AKeys has come out of all this virtually unscathed in the mainstream media because she didn't steal a more famous woman's husband gets me sick. I've been done with her because her music has gotten increasingly yawn-worthy over the years. This thing here though just made it clear that she and her "Whore Carols" were nothing but lies and deception. Bleh to her and all her mess.
Excellent observation and post. Reminds me of when Nicole Simpson (OJ's second wife) was murdered, Black people were like damn Marguerite was lucky she got away from that crazy, cheating lunatic. I remember Margeruite making a comment (maybe in Jet?) about OJ flirting with White stewardesses, and telling them that she was his sister. After the murder, the White media was all, oh was he was married before? Also, when Diane Sawyer interviewed Obama during the campaign. She asked him about the White woman he said he dated in one of his books, could the relationship have gone further, etc. The woman was a somewhat minor point in his book, but ol' Diane was bound to find out who was the mystery White Woman he took out to dinner eons before he met Michelle.
Amazingly accurate. Swizz and Alicia has some 'plainin' to do, but it won't be to US Weekly or even Page Six. The NY Post would be awesome in doing something since both are hometown artists -- but what's right seems to still be what's white. That's sad.
Snob, I will try to counter your article. Back in the good old days of Hollywood (the 50s and 60s) there was zero black celeb gossip, because there weren't many blacks celebs. But, Elizabeth Taylor, Sinatra, Elvis, Marilyn, JFK etc. etc. were getting married, divorcing, cheating blah, blah left and right and these people are considered icons. The press didn't go there. Back then studios made celeb images that were meant to last. If a reporter got too close, he'd be blackballed forever-or Frank Sinatra would bury him in the desert-which ever came first.
Today, white celebs are barraged with photogs everywhere they go. If Kim K. does something nutty, it's on YouTube and TMZ within the hour. I'd say it's too easy too get famous. Therefore, only by comparison could we say blacks don't get the frenzy of news about celebs being bad. But, the press follows black celebs too. When Chris Rock supposedly had outside kids with a white woman, it was reported, but it just wasn't a Brangelinic event.
@ Wenzel
It's true that the studios used to have much more control about the images of their stars. But the beauty (and ugliness) of when actors got their own form of "free-agency" is that corporations were no longer in charge of protecting their images. Actors and entertainers are now in control of their own images, for better or worse. Which meant the media could report on them without as much fear of retaliation. This is a double-edge sword. The studio can't force you into a sham marriage, but when the press finds out about your kinks there's no one there to get that genie back into the bottle.
Black celebrities though have benefited from the fact that there traditionally has been very few black media outlets and those outlets were just as invested with giving rosy images of the stars as the stars themselves. Part of Ebony's mission was to focus on the good, hence their aversion to gossip or anything tawdry. It's not that black people, the public, don't like gossip. Good Lord, black people love gossip as much as the next person and the blogosphere has proved that to be true in spades. But because the gossip industry is about money like any other, Us Magazine, Star, People and other gossip rags focus on whatever stories are going to push the most paper. It is easier to get famous now, but if your a black celebrity you can still be a pretty horrible person and maintain a healthy image in the mainstream as long as you don't do anything that would be of interest to white people.
This is so on point. I could care less about Alicia Keys, Swizz Beats or any of these other so called celebs, but on a broader scale you make an excellent point about how indiscretions and the like are viewed differently by media outlets, depending on the race and status level of the participants. I would also venture to say that if Alicia Keys looked like, say, Fantasia, Page Six wouldn't have bothered with the story at all.
Sad but true. It never changes, does it?
Alicia Stole Someones Man AND Married Him - You KNOW Who Doesn't Condone OWW Situations....
Fantastic case study, Snob. Seriously, they should teach this at J-schools around the country. Very thorough.
FUCK THE WHITE MEDIA!! The thing that REALLY gets me is if they ever do actually talk about black celebrities there is much more of a demonization like with Tiger please these are the same assholes who were CHEERING on Clinton's sleazy ass. And ignored the John Edwards story despite his 'baby momma' a child he denied for 2 years and cheating on a woman who had CANCER oh but he's 'cute' so it's ok[and apparently so is white males having babies out of wedlock]. You'd have thought Tiger stabbed Elin in the damn throat the way those bitches were acting speaking of which I noticed someone brought up O.J. I have said from DAY ONE if that were his first wife who was killed the media would NOT be still talking about it 15 years later. And when they do talk about white celebs it's always that fucking 'awww poor thing' bullshit NEVER how they are getting 'special treatment'. Or the 'if this were anybody else' the state department in California is bending over BACKWARDS for crackhead Lindsay but the media wants her to be the victim. Yeah of her OWN excess an attitude nowhere to be found when it's a black person so FUCK the white media and their bullshit!!
Thank you Sandy Beach. I said , "mmhmm" about 3 times reading your post sitting at my desk. You hit it and I've been saying the same thing about the first Mrs. OJ Simpson.
I read a RT this weekend that said Alicia is singing about but not making empowered choices.
The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. That said, I hope they have a happy marriage & family.
& that Swizz steps up to be a man raising ALL of his kids with love & support.
Oh, & that former wifey/girlfriends can move past this & be happy with their lives.
On a recent visit to Houston, my good friend had just bought Alicia's latest cd so she had it blaring it in her car. While enjoying her company and the scenic tour of Houston she took me by surprise when she pointed out that Alicia is singing about her relationship with Swizz Beatz. I kind of shrugged her comment off so I thought...Since my visit when I hear Alicia's song I quickly press skip or look for another song on the radio. Her singing about their transgressions just bothers me.
On one hand, I am so happy that Alicia has found love, but on the other did she really have to find love with a married man? And if so, could she have done the right thing and waited until the divorce papers were signed, filed, etc. before getting together with Swizz Beatz?
Ha! All of this is point! This is why our Caucasian brethren stay losin @ the Black game show questions. Also, I was dyin w/ the Lionel Ritchie example. My mama and aunties still talk about how he did his Black wife like that. If and when Black gossip made it to the people it was always really, really good and is usually still talked about.
I can't believe the thought never occurred to me before that Alicia Keys is singing about Swizz Beats in a lot of her songs. Well Boo-Boo, you sure did do the damned "Unthinkable". I hope you don't get made when he's "On To The Next One" and can raise your baby on your own.
This was so on point...forget teaching this at J-school, this should be taught at Celebrity 101. As soon as you sign a record deal, NBA/NFL contract, release a sex tape or star on a reality show you must read this article and take a pop quiz!
AKEYS DID THE UNTHINKABLE.
LMAO @ THE REVISIONIST HISTORY.
@LOL
Revisionist history is right; Alicia is pushing propaganda in her songs. Even though what she did was wrong if you listen to “Unthinkable” a few times most people may begin to think, "what if they ARE soul mates and it was really meant to be?????" LOL
I am not advocating home wrecking, but Angelia’s career and reputation is no worse for wear in fact all three of their careers are doing better with the added publicity. And I am beginning to wonder If all the back and forth with Jen and Brad is not just a publicity stunt to help all of their careers. Even bad publicity is good publicity to them. Adultery just is not what it used to be prior to the ‘50s.
I just think she could have chosen somebody better who was single. I definitely wouldn't have wasted my breath on him. He isn't much to look at and that he was married, makes it worse.
If Brad had left Jen while she was expecting, he wouldn't been able to recover. Ang could have adopted 15 colored babies from every corner of the world but her star would have dimmed. (It's called the Tiki Barber rule)
Anyhoo,the most galling thing about A. Keys is that I thought she had some sense. She's beautiful, talented, and intelligent, yet she's still with a dude with 4 baby mamas (wasn't the last child conceived as the marriage with Mashona was ending and his love affair with Keys was heating up? Yuck). Couldn't she do better?
I wish the best of luck because she's going to need it.
Great post Snob.
And to think I remember when people would speculate if A.Keys was a lesbian because they never heard about her relationships in the media. Now that she is married with a child on the way she gets the opposite of comments. I can agree why these valid comments are being made. Just saying.
@Rainy
Have you ever felt a strong connection to someone who was not the best looking man in the world? Morally, I think Alicia should have waited for him to divorce. However realistically no one is going to go through the expense of a divorce even If they are unhappy, just to test out a strong attraction. So her song stated how she felt and what was realistic “if we are gon’ do something ‘bout it we should do it right now,” because realistically eventually probably was not going to happen. However most of the time the cheater will cheat again, but that appears to be the chance that she is willing to take. This is no longer the age of innocence, should Alicia have let her soul mate go without trying , for the sake of morality? (Just playing Devil’s Advocate)
@ Mary
If he has 4 kids and isn't taking care of them like a Man, how could he be anyone's soul mate?
Its bad enough to know he was married but I will never understand women that would be with a guy that doesn't take care of his kids. In the end, Keys looks like she is headed to being his most famous -certainly the latest but not the last- angry baby mama.
@The A
Even men on death row have soul mates. Obviously Alicia thinks Swizz is her soul mate, she is singing songs about it and she believes it’s worth the possible heart ache and pain for the few years or months of happiness. Would you prefer a lifetime married to someone you don’t love or a few years with someone who makes you feel “like you never have before?” If he is not her soul mate Swizz needs to write a book and share his secret.
Also if Swizz is not taking care of his kids I guess like Whitney , Alicia will be helping to take care of his kids, so the ex may not be too mad.